Ash's Butterfree
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Ash's Butterfree (Japanese: サトシのバタフリー Satoshi's Butterfree) was the first wild Pokémon caught by Ash in the Kanto region, and as well the first Pokémon he released. He is also the first fully evolved Pokémon Ash ever obtained. His voice actress in both Japanese and English is 愛河里花子 Rikako Aikawa. As a Metapod, his English voice actor is Eric Stuart.
History
First appearing in Ash Catches a Pokémon, he was the first wild Pokémon Ash caught when he threw a Poké Ball at a Caterpie he encountered in the Viridian Forest. Remarkably, he caught him without a Pokémon battle, which Misty attributed to Caterpie's weakness. Caterpie was quite fond of Misty, but, much to Caterpie's misfortune, she wanted nothing to do with him because he was a Template:Type2 Pokémon, which she feared. The night after he was captured, Caterpie and Ash's Pikachu talked to each other, and Caterpie revealed his desire to evolve into a Butterfree. He then became very sad, as if he was not sure he could do it, but Pikachu encouraged him. He fell asleep next to Misty, who screamed at him the next morning for this and hurt his feelings.
Caterpie was the first Pokémon Ash sent out against the next Pokémon he tried to capture, Pidgeotto. With a large disadvantage against the Template:Type2 Pokémon, he was beaten severely. Despite this, when Jessie, James, and Meowth appeared to attempt to steal Pikachu, Ash sent out his weakened Caterpie against them. They laughed, but Caterpie had the last laugh, taking down both James's Koffing and Jessie's Ekans by himself using String Shot and Tackle. Just as Misty was about to get over her fear and congratulate Caterpie on his victory, he evolved into Metapod, which bothered her even more.
In Challenge of the Samurai, Metapod was sent out in a battle against Samurai, and managed to defeat his Pinsir despite only being able to use Harden. Samurai decided to send his own Metapod out against Ash's; neither could attack, and both had to sit stationary and keep hardening. This was interrupted by a swarm of Beedrill that snatched Ash's Metapod away when he forgot to pick him up before running off. Ash felt guilty about this and became determined to get his Metapod back, finding him with a hive of Kakuna. The Team Rocket trio showed up and woke up the whole hive of Beedrill with their motto, giving Ash a chance to rescue his Metapod. He was unhappy with Ash, but the Trainer tried to make an excuse and claim he didn't abandon Metapod—however, when he tripped on a rock and dropped Metapod, Ash owned up to his mistake and swore to never leave his Pokémon behind again. Metapod was moved by this and, seeing a Beedrill about to attack Ash, leapt up and took the blow, breaking the Beedrill's stinger and getting a large gash in his shell. Metapod then evolved into Butterfree and stopped all the Beedrill with his Sleep Powder attack.
While he was with him, Butterfree was a close companion of Ash's who fought in many battles, including his battle against Misty at the Cerulean Gym during The Water Flowers of Cerulean City. He was notable for his courage, willingly taking on any foe and often proving himself to be much stronger than expected. In Battle Aboard the St. Anne, Ash used him in a battle against a Gentleman with a Raticate, who afterwards asked to trade the Pokémon. Ash accepted, but found that Butterfree meant too much to him to keep the Raticate, and was so set on trading them back that he did it while the St. Anne was sinking, causing him and his friends to be trapped inside.
The last time Butterfree was seen with Ash was in Bye-Bye Butterfree. At the start of this episode, Ash saw a large number of Butterfree flying around in the sky, and Brock told him that it was the Butterfree mating season. Ash realized that his Butterfree would probably want to have babies like the other Butterfree, and so he and his friends rented a hot air balloon and watched Butterfree mingle with the others. Despite Brock's encouragement for Butterfree to choose one belonging to a cute female trainer, Butterfree found his heart set on a pink Butterfree. He tried to impress the pink Butterfree with some fancy flying, only to be rejected with a slap in the face. Heartbroken, he flew into the woods below, followed by Ash and his friends who tried to encourage Butterfree, telling him to be assertive and tying a yellow ribbon around his neck to help him catch the pink Butterfree's eye. Butterfree tried a second time to impress the pink Butterfree with his Whirlwind and Tackle attacks, but this failed as well. Then, Team Rocket showed up in a helicopter and captured all the Butterfree but Ash's in a giant net. Butterfree pursued them, followed by Ash and friends in their hot air balloon, and they headed into a canyon where the Butterfree were stashed. They broke in and Ash battled Team Rocket while Butterfree used his Tackle against the cage the Butterfree were in, finally getting the attention of the pink Butterfree. He broke open the cage, and the Butterfree all flew free. Team Rocket tried a second time to capture all the Butterfree, only to be stopped by both Butterfree and Pikachu. Afterwards, the pink Butterfree approached Ash's Butterfree and the two paired up. The two departed as Ash watched in tears, remembering what the two had been through together and wishing his dear friend a fond farewell.
It is a common misconception that Butterfree die after mating. However, this comes from a mistranslation and there is nothing to stop Butterfree returning in the future.
Ash's Butterfree has since appeared in the tenth opening for the anime, Spurt!, along with his mate, the pink Butterfree. However, he has not returned in any episodes since his last appearance. Ash has, however, flashed back to having him several times, such as in The Thief That Keeps on Thieving! and A Trainer and Child Reunion!.
- Ash's Caterpie.jpg
As a Caterpie
- EP004 032.jpg
Ash and Metapod
- Ash's Butterfree DP099.jpg
Ash bidding farewell to Butterfree
Moves used
| Using Harden as a Metapod | Move | First Used In |
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Tackle | Ash Catches a Pokémon! | |
| String Shot | Ash Catches a Pokémon! | |
| Harden | Challenge of the Samurai | |
| Sleep Powder | Challenge of the Samurai | |
| Whirlwind | Clefairy and the Moon Stone | |
| Stun Spore | The Water Flowers of Cerulean City | |
| PoisonPowder | Challenge of the Samurai | |
| Moves used recently are in bold unless all moves all fit this case. | ||
Trivia
- Ash's Butterfree evolved third fastest of all Pokémon in the anime, after Xander's Caterpie who appeared in the episode Caterpie's Big Dilemma and Jessie's Yanma. It took altogether less than 2 episodes to evolve two stages whereas the other Caterpie evolved two stages within an episode and Jessie's Yanma evolved one stage within one episode.
- In the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, the circumstances of Butterfree's evolutions were different; it evolved from a Caterpie to a Metapod seemingly at random while Ash was showing his Pokémon off to Misty, and then evolved into Butterfree during Ash's gym battle against her.
- Ash decided to catch another Caterpie in the episode Tracey Gets Bugged but was quickly dragged off by Misty, which was the only time where he wanted to catch a Pokémon from the same species that he had successfully caught before (though he did so without wanting to 29 times over with his Tauros).
- As a Caterpie, it was the first Pokémon owned by a main character to make its debut in an episode prior to that of its capture (others include Aipom, which kept appearing in several episodes before Ash captured it, and Ash's Chimchar, which was under Paul's ownership initially and was in numerous episodes before Paul released it and Ash captured it). One could say that Caterpie's appearance at the end of Pokémon Emergency! was a technicality, however, as the first few episodes tended to overlap their beginnings and endings with the previous and next episodes.
- Caterpie is also the first of a main character's Pokémon who had his artwork changed to match the recent Sugimori art despite being introduced before the change (in a flashback of The Thief That Keeps on Thieving!, Caterpie's mouth was green, when at the time of its introduction it was yellow).
- Caterpie was the first Pokémon owned by a main character to have its gender confirmed.
- In Crossing Paths, Jessie released her Dustox in a similar fashion that Butterfree was released. Also, Dustox chose a mate of an alternate coloration, just like Butterfree did.
- Also, both Pokémon were given yellow clothing articles shortly before their respective releases (Butterfree has a scarf, and Dustox has ribbons)
- Butterfree was the first Pokémon Ash caught, first to evolve, first to be traded (although it was traded back) and the first to be released.
- Butterfree is Ash's first Pokémon to have a quadruple weakness to a type. Others include Charizard, Heracross and Gliscor.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Caterpie, Metapod, and Butterfree.
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| For a list of Pokémon Ash has temporarily owned, used, or commanded, see here | ||||||
